ft's all qtarted
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Vhoops, watch out for the ilometre kids They've started heady. Frigoscandia, one of
country's big reefer translart companies, tell me that ley've started a new short-haul ervice with 16-ton vans from leir depot at Stratford. The one nag in the information supplied y Frigo's lain Gray is that he ays the service applies within 6 kilometres of London. He -leans 60 miles, of course.
Let's hope it doesn't catch on -1 public relations jargon; it ould become a habit. Things appen that way. For instance, fe can almost guarantee a rash f competitions over the next AP,/ months offering free trips to ie World Cup Finals in the sgentine.
Robert Bosch has kicked off rith a competition for the motor ade. It's all tied up with buying 3arking plugs and a spot-theall contest. Martin Peters vho's he?), we're told, will pre
-it the prize which will take the 'inners to selected games. The )mpetition is confined to motor aders and dealers and Andrew odger on Watford 44233 will Jpply further details.
I see that Bill Rodgers has been telling his parliamentary colleagues that fitting a tachograph to a vehicle in service — retrofit is the word I was looking for — will cost £175 and recalibration will cost £10. Fitting will be cheaper if the instrument is fitted as original equipment. Now that's better language than talking in the Ems it will cost the nation like some folks have been doing.
On the same day at question time the Transport Minister said that converting our road signs from miles to kilometres would cost on today's prices about £81/2m. He very correctly and sportingly has not committed any successor to his office to a fixed amount. The E81/2m could be more than twice that figure in 1985 — that's the year by which we should be converted.
According to a European communication I read this week we are expected to show some movement towards the change. Why?
We have no common border with any other country and we all know how to convert from miles to kilometres if we have to. You don't. It's simple, divide miles by five and multiply by eight.
I wonder if the £81/2m at present-day prices includes distance indicators as well as speed limits. I doubt it. I'm sure Mr Rodgers would earn our undying gratitude and go down in the history books in bold print if he put a stop to this nonsense.